How the past is memorialized can have a dangerous influence on the future. Monumental Lies exposes the truths buried at contested heritage sites and demands that we safeguard the material evidence of history from both malign defenders and over-enthusiastic erasure. Robert Bevan challenges us to rethink our relationship with our contested spaces, from colonial statues and the physical legacy of fascism, to fake post-conflict reconstructions and ethno-nationalist narratives about beauty and tradition. He questions symbolic power and symbolic changes and explains why wording on a plaque is never a substitute for tackling problem monuments through artistic transformations at scale.
A Financial Times Best Book of 2022
| ISBN: | 9781839761881 |
| Publication date: | 28th April 2026 |
| Author: | Robert Bevan |
| Publisher: | Verso |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 400 pages |
| Genres: |
Theory of architecture Architecture: public, commercial and industrial buildings Political activism / Political engagement |
How the past is memorialized can have a dangerous influence on the future. Monumental Lies exposes the truths buried at contested heritage sites and demands that we safeguard the material evidence of history from both malign defenders and over-enthusiastic erasure. Robert Bevan challenges us to rethink our relationship with our contested spaces, from colonial statues and the physical legacy of fascism, to fake post-conflict reconstructions and ethno-nationalist narratives about beauty and tradition. He questions symbolic power and symbolic changes and explains why wording on a plaque is never a substitute for tackling problem monuments through artistic transformations at scale.
A Financial Times Best Book of 2022
Monumental Lies features in the following genres: Theory of architecture, Architecture: public, commercial and industrial buildings, Political activism / Political engagement
Monumental Lies is available in Paperback, Ebook, Hardback
Monumental Lies was written by Robert Bevan and published by Verso
Monumental Lies has 400 pages
£14.39